Architect Graham Downes was known for having designed many high-profile San Diego hotels and restaurants.
/ Courtesy of Graham Downes Architecture

San Diego  A night of drinking and an employment dispute may have led up to the fatal attack on architect Graham Downes outside his Bankers Hill home in April, witnesses testified Tuesday in a hearing to determine whether Higinio Salgado will stand trial for murder.

Two of Graham Downes’ employees told San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn that Salgado angrily confronted the architect, asking if a former worker was going to be rehired and Salgado would lose his property manager’s job.

A half-dozen witnesses testified at the preliminary hearing, which is expected to conclude Wednesday.

Downes and several employees had spent the evening of April 18 drinking together, first at the office, then at a bar, and finally at Downes’ Juniper Street home, Anne MacDougall, an assistant at the architect’s design firm, said on the stand.

Everyone was getting along until Downes mentioned having discussed business development strategy the day before in a meeting with Simon Terry-Lloyd, who had left the firm in 2011, the witnesses said. Salgado got angry and told Downes, “You better not give Simon Terry-Lloyd my job,” and added, “I hate that (expletive) guy,” MacDougall said.

Downes laughed it off and said Salgado was not going to lose his job, MacDougall said.

She said when she and a co-worker drove away from Downes’ home, he and Salgado were on the sidewalk.

Two neighbors across the street testified they were awakened in the middle of the night by men’s loud, angry voices outdoors. Jeff Kunitz said he looked out his window, saw a large man in a blue shirt acting aggressively toward a smaller man, and called police about 1:10 a.m. When police didn’t respond, he called again about 45 minutes later. By then the smaller man was on the ground, Kunitz said.

San Diego police Officer Eric Jones testified that he drove up shortly before 2 a.m. and saw two men lying face-down on the sidewalk. Salgado had one arm flung over Downes, who was unconscious. Salgado had some blood on his face and his blue shirt but was not injured, Jones said.

Salgado, 31, was arrested, and he was charged with murder after Downes was taken off life support and died the following week.

The 56-year-old architect died of strangulation and severe head, neck and chest trauma, an autopsy said. He also had a blood-alcohol level of 0.23 percent — or nearly three times the legal driving limit of 0.08 percent in California.